EPA to Host Four Public Hearings on Climate Change Reduction

This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host four public hearings on its plan to reduce climate change pollution from power plants. The speakers list is already filling up. Physicians will outline the health hazards linked to climate change. Farmers will talk about the challenges of raising crops in the face of extreme weather. And governors and mayors will describe the benefits of attracting clean energy investment to their communities.

Many people will testify in favor of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. This should come as no surprise considering 7 in 10 Americans view global warming as a serious problem and want the federal government to reduce the pollution that causes it, according to a recent ABC News poll.

But the hearings will also attract another group of speakers: representatives from the American Coal Council, Americans for Prosperity and other dirty industries.

These big polluters oppose the EPA’s effort to rein in the largest source of carbon pollution in our nation. They would rather protect the carbon loophole than do what it takes to safeguard public health and stabilize the climate.

Focusing on carbon dioxide is asinine. If you want to cut sulfur emissions, that’s one thing– that’s real pollution that you can’t “credit” away by bogus accounting. It would help reduce acid rain, at least. But pretending you’re going to stabilize the climate based on reducing US carbon emissions is laughable. That’s even if the main driver of climate change is carbon dioxide, and year after year, there’s less reason to believe that than ever.